6 days Ago By Gabe Myers
CUERO — Jaiden Salas' demeanor on the mound does not change regardless of the stakes. Saturday afternoon in Cuero, Salas knew his Victoria East Titans could clinch the District 22-5A baseball championship. He responded with eight innings of shutout baseball to power the Titans to a 1-0 win over West in eight innings.
"It's just another game for me," Salas said. "I just try not to make things any more than what it is and I've seen these guys before, I just wanted to execute, and that's what I did." Salas was not only dominant on the mound, allowing just five hits in eight innings of work, but also economical.
His complete game shutout consisted of less than 100 pitches. He was able to set down West hitters mostly in order and without getting into very deep counts. "He's got ice water in his veins man, he's been doing it all year," East head coach Wes Kolle said of Salas.
"He's a big game pitcher, he was on it today, extremely efficient, he's a dog and I'm happy he's on our side." Despite Salas' best efforts, the game went into extra innings at 0-0, that was because of the work of his opponent DJ Martinez. Through seven innings, Martinez matched Salas, striking out seven hitters and allowing just two hits as he kept a normally potent Titans offense in check.
"DJ did an excellent job again, that guy's just a fighter," West head coach Jay Perez said. "He was dialed in today, he did a great job for us and gave us a great chance." The pressure was on both pitchers to match what the other was doing.
That was never more apparent than in the fourth inning. Martinez got some help from his defense when Aiden DeLeon threw out Kason Kolle at home plate to keep the game scoreless. The Titans would later load the bases in the inning, but Martinez would get a strikeout to escape the jam.
Salas would follow suit in the bottom half of the inning by working around a bases loaded, one out situation to keep the game scoreless. "I knew he's a great pitcher, I knew coming in that it was going to be a pitchers’ duel," Salas said. "But I try to keep it all the same.
" Martinez never broke serve with Salas, matching him inning for inning through seven. Near his pitch limit though, West opted to remove Martinez in favor of Payton Brannan at the start of the eighth inning. Brannan got the win and pitched 3.
1 shutout innings in relief during the Warriors' March 28 win against East. "I mean DJ was dealing and once we saw the switch it was definitely a little uplifting to us," East catcher Kason Kolle said. "We know Payton was really good against us last time, but just to see them change arms, we knew what had to be done.
" It was Kason Kolle who came through with the biggest hit of the afternoon, a triple down the left field line to put himself on third base with one out in the eighth inning. "I had seen two or three fastballs before that so I knew he was going to go with a breaking ball sooner or later," Kason Kolle said. "I was just trying to keep my eyes up, see it up and it kind of popped out of his hand and I was able to stay through it.
" Kolle would score on the next pitch when Bentley Blinks hit a sacrifice fly to right field to drive in the game's only run. West had a real chance to win the game in the bottom of the eighth. The Warriors got runners to second and third base with two outs.
A soft line drive by Ethan Guerra appeared poised to drop in no man's land in the shallow outfield, but East shortstop Grayson Youngblood secured a running catch to clinch a district title for the Titans, and the district's top seed in the Class 5A, Division I postseason. "These guys have worked so hard just to go through the season that we've had," Wes Kolle said. "We've had a lot of success, but just to put everything outside of baseball on hold and lock in and focus when it's time to play ball, I just can't say enough about this group.
" Victoria East 1, Victoria West 0 East 000 000 01 — 1 3 3 West 000 000 00 — 0 5 2 W: Jaiden Salas. L: Payton Brannan. Highlights: (E) Jaiden Salas 8 IPs, 5 Hs, 0 Rs, 4 Ks, BB; Kason Kolle 1-for-2, 3B, R, 2 BBs; Bentley Blinka 0-for-2, RBI.
(W) DJ Martinez 7 IPs, 7 Ks, 0 Rs, 2 Hs, 5 BBs; Jay Guerrero 2-for-3..
